Put the lvl186 armoring/mods/enhancements ripped out of the 186 commendation gear, and put it into the orange/purple gear you like the look of. Dont pull out old stuff unless you are saving them for some reason. You wont need them for this, and its extra credits you don’t need to spend in all likelihood.

Attach your 9 augment kits to your: helmet, chestpiece, gloves, belt, pants, boots, offhand, mainhand weapon, and bracers. You can attach augments to earpieces, implants, and relics; but I’d honestly wait unless you are a tank, even then I would probably only aug my 192+’s. Some may disagree, but that’s my opinon. If on the fence; augment 1 implant and 1 relic; the better of each.

Google yourself to dufly.com again and figure out what kind of augments (lvl186) that your class/spec needs. ie Sage/dps, Vanguard/tank, etc.; to fill the newly added slots.

You should have 186+ armor, mods, enhancements, augments, implants, relics, and an earpiece in every slot. If you have ANYTHING that isn’t a purple 186 rating, go the the GTN to buy a replacement, craft it, pay someone to craft it, or get more commendations.

Assuming you are wearing all 186+’s, have augments on 9 out of 14 pieces of equipment to match, and are specced correctly (dufly again); you are now “geared enough” for the 3.0 raids.

Step 4: optional prep

If you have never raided before, or never before in this spec; do yourself a favor, run a raid. Dread Fortress (DF), Dread Palace (DP), and Scum and Villainy (SnV, or S&V) story mode would be sufficient. Youtube the fight if doing anything other than SM DPS.

No matter who you are, I suggest running all the new Hardmode (HM) Flashpoints (FPs) at least once as well. Many will skip these steps. You have been warned. Youtube the fight if doing anything other than SM DPS.

Watch your role’s video, and I would also watch the tank video. If there’s an all-in-one, that’s great too.

This may contain spoilers, but if you have completed the Yavin 4 Shadow of Revan story, nothing big will be spoiled; just who the bosses are.

Step 6: Bypassing the “Link chieve for invite”

This is the easiest part, but the part everyone has trouble with. If you have the gear, and know the fights well enough for your role, you’re ready. Sure you might die, but everybody makes mistakes. If someone is going to give you a hard time, don’t sweat it, their dick probably fell off after Chernobyl.

Type in general chat “LFM (looking for more) 8m Ravagers; pst with role (and achievement)”; I know asking for an achievement seems hypocritical, but honestly, no group needs more than 1 virgin. You can assure you did your research and you are geared, you cant assure someone else did the same, but linking an achievement lowers the odds. People get carried, sure, but it lowers the odds of your group falling apart if you ask for the achievement.

You need 2 tanks, 2 healers, and 4 dps for both operations in 8 man. I would start with 8 man because even if you dont clear the op, you will get a better idea of what’s going on in 8 man.

Rinse and repeat week after week until you clear Ravagers. You can now bypass other people’s achievement requirement.

You can do the same thing for ToS, but once you clear one, people are pretty lenient about the other.

Bonus tips:

Get parsec. If you can do a respectable number on a dummy, and see it in parsec. That provides a layer of protection for yourself. Good numbers on a dummy, good knowledge of the fights, and you started the group? Yeah no one is going to be the wiser that you haven’t been here before.

Join a guild, start your PUG (pick up group) with a guild friend or 2. Groups that only need a few more fill up fast.

In my opinion: Bulo, Torque, Sword Squad (Walkers), and Underlurker are the toughest. I’d spend my time learning these as completely as possible. The final boss on ToS which is the only “canon” boss, is a victory lap in story mode (as well as the boss before the last). You could probably skip learning this video, if you are trying to avoid spoilers, it’s quite simple (again, in story mode).

I hope this helps. The new operations are harder, but not “hard”, and can be cleared by anyone on story mode. I saw a lot of individuals intimidated by the “link chieve” PUG groups, and thought I would share the method I have used in several MMOs starting with WoW to sidestep that (valid) request. Some people like me don’t have time for serious guilds, but still want to clear content.